Because we were going to be outside, I had dressed differently for the occasion. Cargo pants, a green tank top, and a pair of tall surplus infantry boots suited the occasion. I was in the process of picking small slivers of meat off the bones of the rotisserie chicken in the container I had on top of my car when a small silver sports car slid into a slot next to mine. It wasn’t a high performance, but it certainly looked sporty, sort of like a hybrid between a spyder and an Altima, but it didn’t have any brand marks and it had a government plate, so I wondered if it was one of those supercars custom-designed for meta heroes? If she was coming from Jersey in less than 45 minutes, it certainly fits the bill, although I had sort of expected her to fly. I really wanted to see her fly.

She stepped out of the car, and I grinned when I noticed that her costume, sort of a skintight suit with a cape and full mask, black with white gloves and boots and white sparkles leading from her hands and feet into the body of the suit, was now partially covered by exactly the sort of laminated poly armor I had suggested.

Like before, she had her hair put into a ponytail, but she pulled out the helmet and smiled at me. Her mask covered her upper face, and I noticed that she had an attractive mouth and a pointed, pixielike chin. Maybe the masks could fool facial recognition software, but after seeing her in her surgical mask and now this, if I saw her on the street I wouldn’t miss her. It didn’t help that she could have been an actress which made her look very distinctive.

“Glad to see you wearing armor,” I said with a slight chuckle as I tucked the container back into a plastic bag and stashed the whole into my passenger seat.

She bit her lower lip for a second and replied, “I figured you had a point. I have spent all morning working on staying aloft wearing it. It’s light though. It changes my flying profile a little, but not too bad, I was glad you asked if I wanted to do a little fight training while wearing it, it will be good to get used to the weight and balance. Carbine is working on making a custom-fitted version of it, but until now I hadn’t asked him for any gear other than our usual team stuff. He asked me to officially thank you for talking me into wearing armor.

I chuckled, “Carbine being your team outfitter, I assume?”

She nodded, “Yeah. He’s kind of an introvert, though, and prefers to do cyber stuff, but he knows a lot about engineering too and can help get our gear up to spec. He said he is going to make a set that matches my suit better and has better streamlining, but for right now this is a good idea for training and keeping me from getting shot.” She tugged out one of those European riot helmets, the ones that are smaller and much more comfortable, and are often used by sport motorcyclists since they are tougher than usual BMX gear. “I also found this, and he says he can update it to add the electronics our team uses.”

I nodded, “Very smart. I know that showing your face and hair is kind of important to building your superhero image, but helmets have saved my head more times than I can count, and I don’t even fight supervillains. The more attractive the face, the more the bad guys try and push it in, it seems.”

She nodded, “I have not actually faced any supervillains yet, personally, but it seems to hold for street criminals too.”

I smiled evilly, “Where’s your friend? You might be facing a supervillain right now, you know.”

She laughed and shook her head, “Maybe you are a villain, but I can detect minor electrical pattern shifts. Unless you know some magical way to shield your electrical patterns while wearing workout clothes, you aren’t a Meta, they have distinctive signatures. Your pattern is a little weird, but you don’t qualify as a supervillain. Besides, you haven’t done anything villainous yet.”

I shrugged, “I might have villainous plans yet. Don’t discourage me. I plan on kicking your ass repeatedly and then going all fanboy and asking you for pictures later I can drool over in private.” I grinned, “And there’s a girl at work that is a big hero fan… I could sell her the pictures for big bucks if I don’t ask her what she’s going to do with them” I waggled my eyebrows lasciviously.

She sighed. Not the reaction I was hoping for. “The first outfit they tried to put me in barely qualified as a swimsuit. There are already pictures out there for people to drool over. I am not that great looking, but if you put a skimpy suit on it weirdos would bank pictures of a Saint Bernard.”

I nodded, “Yeah, but on the plus side, a lot of the worst weirdos also have big bankrolls and donate to teams they drool over. A good financial base can go a long way towards getting a team outfitted, almost as much as Proteus funding, and outfitting can mean the difference between success and failure even if all you are hitting is street crime. You still haven’t told me where your friend is.”

She nodded, “She’s scouting to make sure this isn’t an ambush. If you really were a supervillain, she’d have probably already tackled you. She’s an ambush tank, so you probably would not have enjoyed it.”

I shrugged and opened up my trunk to get my padding bag. If she was going to be practicing death from above, I figured I would need it.

I heard a whispered voice behind me, and suddenly felt a presence that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. “What’s in the trunk?” a female voice asked.

I held up the bag without turning around. “Gear bag. It has two sets of gloves, one for me and one for her, and a set of padding for me since she is wearing armor already and I didn’t have anything in her size. It also has two sets of batons, which I use to train but figured she might want to try out. It also has my lifesaving kit since I am a qualified EMT, a couple of energy drinks, some protein bars in case we get hungry, and a box of condoms in case we hit a birthday party and I cannot stop to buy balloons. The trunk itself has a tire iron, a jack, a 24 pack of generic water bottles, an emergency kit with a bigger lifesaving kit for accidents, and a spare tire, the real thing, not the donut.” I answered carefully, only leaving out a couple of special concoctions I had included in case of emergencies, since explaining those would be a nightmare.

I heard a low chuckle and turned around. And then looked up. The woman that was standing there would have melted Gillie’s panties in less than a second. She looked but didn’t sound, like one of those famous Russian female bodybuilders. A platinum-dyed crew cut over the kind of she-hulk body that subby nerds paid artists money to draw in latex. I was technically more muscular than she was, but it was on a guy frame, and her almost seven-foot-tall body made up the difference and then some.

She was smiling a little bit. “Seriously, a box of condoms? Were you planning to get lucky?”

I shrugged, “They are in my bag and have been there for a while. Probably expired, although if she hadn’t warned me of company I might have been tempted to get a new box just in case,” and then I smirked, “I also have a box of tampons and a bag of pads in my medkit. Maybe I was planning on having my period out here too.”

Callie snorted behind me. Not a ladylike giggle but an actual snort, covered by a coughing noise. She had laughed, mission accomplished.

She shrugged, opting for scary instead of amused. “Around me, many men choose to have their periods, usually by making me angry.”

I nodded, “Alright, consider me intimidated. Still, that friend I mentioned? She’d probably break her girls-only rule to pay me back if I got her a picture of you.”

The woman looked me straight in the eye and stated, “I am not a lesbian.”

I was surprised. She had the butch look down perfectly. “Seriously? Then why the…” and I swept my hand over her look. Thickly banded muscle covered by a one-piece green latex swimsuit with armored inserts, tall boots with roachstomper heels, and heavily padded gloves. She had bits of armor at the easily-broken spots like knees and elbows, as well as a high padded collar.

She shrugged. “I play to my strengths. I tried the Power Girl look for a while, but kept getting jumped by fake supervillains that wanted me to punish them. Like this, I just have to deal with hardcore fangirls and fanboys who I can safely ignore. Plus, I can get some serious deals from pride-friendly sponsors in exchange for showing up at parades occasionally, and I eat as much as ten normals. Custom clothes and food can get expensive when you eat as much as a big family.”

I nodded, glancing over at Callie, who was watching how I interacted with her teammate, and then back at… whatever her name was. “That must make it tough to find boyfriends unless you like the gimpsuit type.”

She shook her head, craning her neck for a moment to look into the trunk and confirm my inventory. “No, I do not. They break too easily. My dating has to be confined to tough Metas only, or I go to jail for manslaughter. Usually, they know me first, however, but the men who like being hurt are also the ones least likely to survive getting affectionate. Why, do you enjoy getting hurt? Callie told me you volunteered to be a practice dummy, but you would not work for me.”

I shook my head, “No, I hate getting hurt. That’s why I work so hard to improve myself. But it pays the bills, and the more I lose now, when it’s safe, the less likely I am to fail if something really dangerous happens.”

She nodded slowly, and I finished getting out my pads. “The attitude of sweat more now, bleed less later, the pads and tampons. You are an ex-marine?”

I shook my head, “No. I was disqualified for something stupid my brother did. My Dad was a Marine, though. Beat a lot of lessons like that into our heads before he ate an IED in the sandbox a few years back.” I started walking between the graveyard and the far-off archery range. Both of them were closed at this time of the evening, but the park was not controlled access. My friends and I used to play killer deeper into the woods, and I figured this would be a good place to train without attracting too much attention.

Both Calliope and the big girl walked with me as I lugged the oversized bag. “You are EMT trained? She asked, and then added, “Oh, I am Sif.”

I nodded, “Louis.” and then added, “Not traditionally trained, no. I am, or was, a medical student. I have all my EMT certs, and before my mom died, I was a volunteer EMT for the Fairfax volunteer fire department and FEMA active. Since then, though, I just don’t have time to volunteer anymore, between work, school, and training. I am out here tonight because this is my rest day and I don’t have classes, and I couldn’t pull OT at work on my boss’s day off.”

I glanced back at Calliope, “Oh, and fair warning, I am a gigantic nerd. I used to make some spare cash painting miniatures and turning people into their character Avatars. I know the penalty for compromising a secret ID but I have seen enough that I will recognize you if you aren’t in costume. I figured that if I got that out there you wouldn’t come after me if your ID gets a hit.”

She sighed and nodded, “Yeah, I assumed that was a risk with finding outside training. I should have come in costume, but it attracts so much attention. Do you think the other people at the Gym will recognize me?”

I shook my head. “Not a chance. Gym guys are like boobs, body, and face a distant third. Jim might if he saw you in costume up close, but he cannot draw stick figures without using a how-to guide, so you should be good. It probably helps that Jim wouldn’t remember your boobs either. He would rather stare at me naked than you or Sif.”

Sif shrugged, “I cannot blame him.” To which Callie barked, “Sif!”

She looked at Callie seriously. “I am comparing him, of course, to Captain Codpiece.”

I raised an eyebrow and flopped my bag on the ground. This looked like a decent area. It had sparse trees and not much undergrowth and would be excellent for both fighting and aerial maneuvers. “Captain Codpiece?” I asked.

Callie sighed, “It’s what we call Magnum Steel.”

“Magnum Steel?” I asked, “Is that his real name? It sounds like a porn star that’s fond of 80’s TV shows. Does he have a Selleck mustache?”

Callie shook her head. “No. I mean, yes, he has a mustache, but no, that’s his Super Identity. Our team is Carbine, Magnum Steel, Sif, Me, and Riptide. Magnum is...he’s fond of Bio-enhancement suits. He doesn’t enjoy physical training much, but his biosuit makes him look kind of like you do, only bigger, with a skinnier waist.”

Sif added, “And with an enormous package. He tried to entice me until I finally got upset and made him pee blood, and he tried to talk Callie into doing something she’d regret.”

Callie shook her head, “There was no chance of that. He’s a gross idiot, and I saw that flix show about the superheroes. The minute he started talking about getting ahead and staying on the team by giving him a BJ, I knew he was full of shit. If his biosuit weren’t resistant to electricity, I’d have shocked him till he pooped himself. It’s like he pulled the whole thing right from the show, I am surprised no one has had him up on charges yet.”

I was finished strapping up my pads and offered Callie the heavy gloves as well as a set of kicking boots. She looked a little surprised until I explained, “I want you to try some flyby maneuvers. If you catch me I don’t want you to break something, and if you miss I don’t want you to hurt yourself hitting the ground. The armor is good, but it’s not designed for foot protection, and I hope your friend Carbine considers that when he finished rebuilding your amour.”

She nodded, “I will certainly ask him to take that into consideration. This stuff is tough enough that I could probably even take a short fall if I lose the wind, and the version he is making should let me transfer shocks through the padding so I don’t need to open hand slap.”

Sif nodded, “I am glad you are letting her train with you. I have fought many supervillains, and my reactions are not good for dealing with a less physical Meta. She also learns, from fighting me, how to damage much tougher opponents, but when facing humans, that training may be too dangerous for an appropriate level of force. I often sit out the baseline fights, as I am a decent distraction and if I strike one of them they are likely to die, so I usually go first to attract attention and fire and then let my team deal with them. Until now, as well, her strikes against me could damage her.”

Sif continued. “I do not like her training against Magnum because he likes to take too much advantage of physical contact. Yes, this is realistic to some fights, but many villains are more interested in harming her than copping a feel. Riptide is a specialist, and Carbine only fights in his armor, like me, training with Carbine is useful, but not good training for less physical opponents. She told me that last night the two of you fought for two hours and you did not once touch her inappropriately except for the necessities of combat, so I chose to observe this invitation for her sake.”

I nodded slowly and held up my big gloves. “I have very limited opportunities to grope someone in these.” I chuckled and tossed the other pair to Calliope. “Besides. I have good self-control. I won’t pretend I don’t find her attractive, but I like girls with minds as much as I do their bodies. A girl who works out her body without working out her mind is just as bad as the reverse. I don’t like arguments and debates, but a mutual understanding doesn’t work if only one person can understand.”

I grinned, tapping my gloves together as she got Sif to finish lacing hers. After years of experience, I was very good at setting up gloves to tug tight with my teeth, but clearly, Calliope didn’t. I held my mouthpiece in my hand, “Besides, lovely Calliope is a blonde. If she were a redhead, I might not have had that much self-control.” I grinned, and then added, “Go ahead and come at me stronger. My pads are way better fitted than the ones at the gym, just don’t do any full-strength hits to the head, neck, or vitals. Despite Sif’s preferences, peeing blood is not a good look on a guy.”

Calliope looked at Sif, who was shaking her head. “Opsec.” She stated simply. And Calliope chuckled at me. “Too bad I cannot introduce you to one of my relatives. You redhead fans are weird, you will overlook any flaws if she’s got red hair and freckles. I think it’s kind of cool.”

I shrugged, “Not any flaws. Half of the redhead is bitchy attitude that is weirdly attractive, but if it goes too far, or she is too stupid, that is a flaw that I have a tough time overlooking.” I put the mouthpiece between my teeth and nodded at her, tapping my gloves together and bowing to her slightly. She bowed back, but suddenly became a whirlwind of strikes, including kicks. I was not kidding, she was a whirlwind, fast as hell with the wind blowing around her and occasionally carrying her into the air to strike impossibly high kicks, followed by a drop to the ground for low.

I backpedaled a couple of times, and manage to body slam her while she was whirling, rolling her backward, but most of my actions involved blocking or dodging her attacks. I don’t know if it was last night’s medicinal boost or simply my training against her, but I was much more capable of withstanding her attacks, and she even started using wind bursts to back up some of her strikes, increasing their speed and ferocity.

I was not able to block everything, but what did get through was not too bad. If I were wearing armor like hers, I imagine that fighting a Meta of her power level wouldn’t be too bad. At one point I struck, tossing her up in the air, and she pointed a heel at me Chun-Lee style and had a wind burst drive her down forcefully at my shoulder. I barely swiveled my shoulder in time, sliding her foot down my back so all I got was a faceful of armored crotch instead of a broken collarbone. It was not as sexy as it sounds, so I lifted a leg, showing off way more flexibility than I had so far, hooked it around her torso, and flung her back almost ten feet onto the ground.

“Time!” I yelled. It was considerably over time, but Callie had hit pretty hard, and I hurried over to her, “Shit, are you okay?” I asked. She was gasping but looked alright. Suddenly the entire scene seemed to shift backward as she receded from me, and the breath was driven out of my chest as Sif’s eyes were suddenly glaring into mine from where she had slammed me into a tree. I think I felt something give for a moment as pain shot through my chest, but it eased a few moments later as I caught my breath. No broken ribs, good.

“You are a meta, Why did you lie?” Sif asked me through clenched teeth. Her elbow and forearm were pressed into my chest, and her other hand gripped the top of my helmet, pressing it into the tree. Damn, she was strong. I was seriously tempted to try and press my forearm to her shoulder to get a scan on her, but if I tried to swivel my shoulder that way, it might break.

“I am not a meta,” I said, a little gasping. It was hard to draw a full breath with the way she was holding me, but I was in the process of catching my breath.

I guess she believed me or at least believed that I believed me, because she eased back a little, letting my feet touch the ground and letting me pull in deeper breaths. “No, you are a Meta. Are you unregistered?”

I shook my head and noticed that Callie was back on her feet, trying to futilely use her glove to pull Sif’s arm away from my chest. “Sif, he isn’t a meta! You know I can see meta electrical patterns, and he doesn’t have one!”

She looked at Callie, and then looked at me, and then at Callie again. “He is human?” she asked, still growling. I don’t know how she moved as quickly into position as she had, but it was probably why she was referred to as an ambush tank instead of just a tank.

Callie shook her head. “There’s something weird about his electrical pattern. He is not a meta, but he’s also not definitively human either.”

Sif let me down, easing off on my chest but looking ready to turn me into paste if she had to. “Then what are you? Are you a god?”

I shook my head, “At the risk of making Harold Ramis roll over in his grave and eternally haunt me, I would have to say no. I am not a god. Why, are gods a thing?”

Sif nodded, glaring at me still. “Yes. Gods, Vampires, Werewolves, Ghosts, many of them are real. Some of them are Metas that awakened far before their time, and some of them are simply there. Are you the offspring of a god? I know you are not a vampire or a werewolf. Vampires would have died in the sun and werewolves cannot control themselves in a fight or when hurt. But whatever you are, you are not human.”

I shook my head at her, wondering how much I should tell her. “I can promise, I am completely human. Maybe a little more than human, but still human.”

Sif lost her glare but was still looking at me suspiciously. “What do you mean? Humans do not move as you do. You were intercepting her blows faster than she could throw them. You strike slowly, but that is only because you are concentrating on the mechanics of the punch to increase your force. A man with your build loses some flexibility and speed, you could never have twisted your leg to throw her from your shoulder in that fashion, and most importantly, you may have deflected her blow, but any human would have broken their neck. I assumed we would have to carry you to Riptide to get you healed, but you look completely unaffected.”

I rolled my head and neck, checking. Nope, not broken. My collar felt a little stressed, but it was not even strained. “Her foot slid right down my back, it didn’t get even close to full impact.”

Sif shook her head, “Not that, when her foot slid, her full weight hit your face sideways with her groin. She does not weigh that much, but she was using her wind force, and a hundred pounds to your head at about forty miles an hour should have broken your spine like a wine glass. And then you twisted in an impossible way, and your leg threw her farther than should have been possible even with the best leverage. She would have flown over thirty feet if her wind force did not catch her and force her to hit the ground. A human man cannot use his butt muscles and a single leg to fling a one hundred and twelve pound woman over thirty feet!”

I sighed. “Do you know what a parahuman is?”

Sif shook her head, “No, I do not. What is it?”

I shrugged, lifting my hands to my face and starting to tug off my gloves with my teeth. “Beats the shit out of me. Apparently, it’s what I am, but I know it’s not a meta or any of that other stuff you mentioned. I heal faster than normal, build muscle a little faster, and learn fairly well, but the etymology implies that it means nothing more than a human plus. Like you have alpha humans, beta humans like a beta test, and then you have the release version. Protohumans are probably the alpha, Cro-Magnons are the beta, modern humans are humans 1.0, and if metahumans are version 2.0, then parahumans are like version 1.1. slightly optimized, but still the same codebase.”

Sif slowly nodded, “There are godly things about you, but you do not feel like a god.”

I smiled, “Thank you, no one has ever told me I have a body like a god before.”

She shook her head. “That’s not what I meant. How do you know that you are this parahuman thing?”

I nodded, “I know, but right now I am like, is she going to kill me? Does she think I am a monster that has to be eliminated like the Siberian rift beasts? I’d much rather think you were just desperate for my admittedly amazing body rather than wondering if you were going to break my neck.” I added in my best approximation of a thick Russian accent, “Snap! Just like tweeg.”

Sif was looking thoughtful. “I would have to fight you to see if you are tough enough to take to my bed or just snap like tweeg.” She chuckled and then glanced up to see Callie glaring at her. “What?” she asked, “Do you want dibs?”

I reached forward and gently patted my now-ungloved hand against Sif’s bare shoulder, and she flashed into my mind.

Sif Thorsdottir (Sif)

Scion 35%, class D(A)

Aspects: body, nature, earth

Power: 170

Conditions: 222 days until menses

Projected lifespan: ??? years barring mishap. Current age: 64

healthy, suspicious, interested

Powers: Scion strength, Scion durability, increased density, storm resistance, minor storm calling

no current abnormal infections

“Sif, despite my curiosity at what it would feel like to bed a woman that is both so youthful and so much older than I am, I am afraid I am saving myself. You are quite beautiful, as befits your heritage, but I am afraid you are simply far too much woman for me.”

Sif looked like she was about to jump me again. “How do you know that?” She asked, angrily.

“You asked how I knew I was a parahuman. In the same way, I know that you are Sif Thorsdottir, and something called a scion. Based on the word used, your abilities, and the fact that you are not a meta, I have to assume that means you are the descendant of a deity, I suppose Thor. I know your age, but I will not share it, and I have to assume that Scions do not age at the same rate as humans if they age at all.”

She nodded. “I am not secret. Most of that information could be collected on the net. I did not see you touch your phone since we met. Are you a cyberkinetic?”

I shook my head, sighing. “I wish. No, I just get an impression of things. Usually, it’s tied into information that is already known or suspected, or that I have already been exposed to. Like, for some reason, I know when you are going to have your period, at least within a couple of days, and I know your age. I do not know what a scion is, though, so I have no idea how long your potential lifespan is. Some of the information is strictly medical, probably because I am at least partially trained as a doctor. Like I know that you don’t currently have any nasty infections or diseases, your organs are in good shape, and that you could crush my head like a grape if I pissed you off.”

She nodded, “Do you know those things about Calliope?”

I slowly nodded, “Yes, I know her real name, age, and health. I know she won’t be having her period for well over a month, I guess that’s a meta thing, and I know she’s healthy, in amazing shape, and approximately what her powers are. Then again, I have been fighting with her so all of that is not too far out of bounds for normal experience, except the name. And no, I won’t share her real name with you because I don’t know if you are cleared to know it unless she tells me.”

Sif looked at Calliope, who was looking at me very strangely, and then She said, “If you know it, Sif already knows it. Go ahead and say.”

I shrugged, “As long as I won’t go to prison for violating identity laws. Are you certain?”

Calliope shrugged, “If it worries you, just my middle name would work.”

I nodded, “Let’s just say that you would look amazing in that color, and I think you are even more beautiful than the flower you were named after.”

She looked, dumbfounded. I sighed again and started stripping off my pads. “So am I going to prison or are you planning on just gacking me as a security threat?” I asked Sif.

Sif shrugged, “I honestly don’t know. And I do not know if I should take it to Proteus either. If you are telling the truth, you are an obvious security threat, but would apprehending a new species of human be the right or the smart thing to do? I will need to speak to my superiors, and by that, I do not mean Proteus. My grandfather, if he will listen to me, can give me better guidance than human politicians can.”

I nodded, and got to my feet, taking off the rest of the pads. “I guess that means the training session is over”. I chuckled, “I was going to ask Caroline out on a date after we finished, since, for some strange reason, I actually have a little bit of spare cash right now, but I guess that idea is on indefinite hold.”

Callie was going to say something, but Sif nodded and said gravely, “I think that is probably for the best. Thank you for your time and efforts in helping share pointers with my teammate. After we gain more information, we shall speak again, but until then I would appreciate it if you did not contact us. We will be keeping our eye on you until we can determine the right thing to do.”

I nodded and sighed, glancing back at Callie before heading to my car. Dammit, the first time I wanted to spend time with someone in over a year, and Murphy just has to piss all over it.